Thursday, November 8, 2007


ENTOURAGE
Season 4 Episode 12
“The Cannes Kids”
Written by Doug Ellin
Directed by Mark Mylod

Whereas Season 2 brought the boys to Sundance, this season’s finale sees them in the heady celluloid market place that is Cannes.
Everyone (particularly E) is staying positive about selling Medellin for some big bucks, while the person most anxious about getting a deal, “sober for one year now despite having all these topless enablers around me” Nicky Rubenstein, is stuck back in the States under house arrest.
When they get to the hotel though, who do they see but Prince Yair, who came this close to producing Medellin back in Season 3’s “The Prince’s Bride.” Yair is no longer married, and wants to get into the film releasing business big time, and he’s willing to make a deal for Medellin, sight-unseen.
Ari doesn’t really like the idea, as this’ll be Yair’s first crack at distributing a film, but Nicky calls Ari and tells him to take the meeting.

At Yair’s yacht, Johnny does the Macarena, and Yair lays out the deal. $35 million, before anyone else sees a single frame of film. $35 million, is of course, the total budget of Medellin, and that would recoup everyone’s money.
E is willing to entertain the notion of taking the deal, but everyone else is leery of Yair, so Ari (aka “Master of the Universe”) stirs up a little wheel-and-deal action.
He drops a word or two in Dana Gordon’s lap. Then, who do the boys run into but Harvey Weingard, who got screwed by them a second time, over Medellin, in this season’s “Malibooty/Sorry, Harvey.”
Harvey’s still pissed off, but when Ari sees Dana watching from a distance, he throws his arms around Harvey, making Dana think Harvey’s the power player angling for Medellin. So Dana bites and sets up a morning meeting, hours before the Medellin premiere.


At the meeting, Dana plunks down $15 million, but that’s way below what Ari’s aiming for. He says $50 million, Dana balks in very colourful language, and is walking away from the table when Vince says, “The offer’s $35 million.” Dana says she isn’t authorized to make that big an offer.
Some wrangling takes place, and Turtle gets a call from Johnny. When Johnny asks how things are going, Turtle says, “Great. It looks like they’re gonna get $50 mil for Medellin.”
As it turns out, Johnny’s back on Yair’s yacht (more on that later), and automatically passes this little nugget onto Yair.
Back at the meeting, Dana can go no higher than $28 mil, so Vince and E agree to put off getting their money back till the film makes a profit, and though Dana still has to make up some of the difference on her end, the deal is struck. As everyone is going off for a drink, Ari gets a call from Nicky. Yair just called him and Nicky sold Medellin for a whopping $75 million. (Nicky’s also about to fall off the wagon in a very big way.)
Now Ari just has to break the news to Dana…

This season winds down at the Medellin premiere, where the audience pretty much gives their thumbs down—and some boos—to the film (just as E feared they would). Dana thanks Ari for not having bought the film, Billy gets vocal, and Yair backs out of the deal, since no papers were signed.
Harvey sidles up to the boys, and agrees to buy the film, since he actually agrees with E that there’s something in Medellin.
Of course, he agrees to buy Medellin for $1. (As Ari points out after they take the deal, Harvey did wonders for Shakespeare In Love when he took his scissors to it…)


Meanwhile, it’s actually the episode’s Johnny Drama subplot that leads up to the episode’s final scene.
It turns out that Drama’s a big thing in France because of Viking Quest, and he meets Jacqueline (Julia Levy-Boeken) on Yair’s yacht. Jacqueline (along with the rest of her family) is a huge Viking Quest fan, and she’s so ready to get into bed with Drama.
When they get back to the hotel though, the room Drama’s given (after a mix up with his reservation) is far too small for his taste and doesn’t align with the ideal image in his head of his bedroom encounter with Jacqueline. So he goes off to complain, leaving her in the room to wait for his return.
And in true Johnny Drama fashion, gets kicked out of the hotel.
He subsequently tries to hook up with Jacqueline again, but can’t seem to find her. He eventually returns to Yair’s yacht, but she’s not there either. Drama ends up spending the night at the yacht, which is why he’s there when Turtle makes that ill-advised comment about Medellin’s going price.
It’s at the red carpet of the Medellin premiere that Jacqueline shouts at Drama from the crowd, and he takes her up in his arms and whisks her off to the beach. Drama misses the premiere, but ends up having long, hot sex with Jacqueline on the beach, which is where the paparazzi and passersby are rushing off when Vince and the boys exit the premiere with the $1 Medellin booty.
They flock to the beach as well, where they cheer Johnny on, and we close on another season of Entourage.

Parting shot: Season 5 is tentatively scheduled to air in mid-2008, provided the WGA strike ends soon. Let's keep our fingers crossed...

(Images courtesy of hbo.com.)

No comments: